SpaceX will buy wireless spectrum licences from EchoStar for its Starlink satellite network for about $17bn, a major deal crucial to expanding Starlink’s nascent 5G connectivity business.
The Elon Musk-owned aerospace company announced the purchase on Monday, reports Al Jazeera.
The companies also agreed to a deal that will enable EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access Starlink direct-to-cell service to extend satellite service to areas without service.
The spectrum purchase allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand the cell network’s capacity by “more than 100 times”.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, said the deal will help the company “end mobile dead zones around the world … With exclusive spectrum, SpaceX will develop next-generation Starlink Direct to Cell satellites, which will have a step change in performance and enable us to enhance coverage for customers wherever they are in the world.”
The push comes amid fast-rising wireless usage. In 2024, Americans used a record 132 trillion megabytes of mobile data, up 35 percent over the prior all-time record, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) said on Monday.
SpaceX has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020, building a distributed network in low-Earth orbit which has seen demand from militaries, transportation firms and consumers in rural areas.
Roughly 600 of those satellites – which SpaceX calls “cell towers in space” – have been launched since January 2024 for the company’s direct-to-cell network, orbiting closer to Earth than the rest of the constellation.
Crucial to those larger satellites’ deployment is Starship, SpaceX’s giant next-generation rocket that has been under development for roughly a decade. Increasingly complex test launches have drawn the rocket closer to its first operational Starlink missions, expected early next year.
The deal comes months after the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) questioned EchoStar’s use of its mobile-satellite service spectrum and raised concerns about whether it was meeting its obligations to deploy 5G in the country.
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
